Fly on the Wal-Mart

If, as the joke goes, World War II-era America suffered from deafness - we blew the bugle in 1939 and they didn't hear it until 1941 - these days we're the ones with hearing difficulties. Something makes a big noise across the Atlantic and a year later, or maybe five, Britain gets a similar explosion.

In the case of Wal-Mart, the world's biggest company, the blast has already erupted - muffled by Asda's green logo, since many Brits don't yet realise Asda is now part of the Wal-Mart behemoth.

'Asda follows the policies of Wal-Mart,' states Robert Greenwald, director of gonzo documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price, which uses small people's stories to damn the giant retailer's ethics, employment policies and customer care.

Greenwald's claims - that Wal-Mart's famously low prices reap billions for owners and shareholders but mean small shops are driven out of business, workers are denied overtime payments or medical care and the basic safety of shoppers is not maintained - have infuriated the company so much they've released their own counter-attack video.

'Funny, isn't it?' says Greenwald. 'I asked them to participate in my film several times.' Not that he was concerned with balance - 'corporations who spend $3million a day don't have to use my film to tell their story' - but he thought the conflict would make for a better film.

'They turned me down. And then they accuse me of making a one-sided movie. It's the ultimate hypocrisy.'

For those still worrying about the Starbucks effect, Greenwald's documentary will be deeply scary, especially in the detail: even those attacking the firm refer to Wal-Mart workers as 'associates', the company's radically misleading term.

And some of the examples of cost-cutting could affect us, such as the failure to install and supervise CCTV in car parks, which has led to rapes and murders in the deserted spaces going unsolved.

'I really thought that after seeing my film Wal-Mart would change that policy,' reflects Greenwald. 'But they just say "Other companies have problems with their car parks". Well, duh, so what? Other companies provide medical insurance. Other companies go out of business. You gonna copy that?'

Greenwald, 60, started out in theatre, 'but I came to the fork in the road. I knew I couldn't work for anyone else, because I'm a horrible employee. So I became a producer, which is easy - you just call yourself a producer. Then, after 9/11, when people's pain began to turn to rage and revenge, I got more active politically.'

The eventual result was Uncovered, a documentary about the Iraq war, and Greenwald had found his niche: engaged, unashamedly partisan docs that resemble Michael Moore's films, without the director's visible presence.

'I don't use voiceover,' Greenwald says, 'even though it makes my life harder. But I think people react [to voice-overs] like homework, or spinach - it's supposed to be good for you. It gives information but not much emotion. I believe these films have to get to people's hearts first if we're going to change people.'

Greenwald has certainly helped to change the documentary. Technological advances allowed him to get out and make his film without expensive crew or equipment, but it was the Internet that enabled him to distribute Uncovered.

'I improvised an "upstairs downstairs" distribution system. Downstairs was the Internet; upstairs were screenings for opinion-makers.'

Ease of access, he believes, partly accounts for the rise of the documentary. Filmmakers can get their work out to an audience quickly and cheaply - just check out the section of www.moveon.org which is devoted to holding screenings of the Wal-Mart film, and even offers a press release template.

'People are seeing the movies,' grins Greenwald. 'It's not just my mother.'